text: During the 1950s McTaggart made an extensive investigation of the sulfides, selenides and tellurides (collectively known as chalcogenides) of titanium, zirconium, hafnium and thorium. The study synthesised and examined some fifty different compounds, collecting data on them which was published in Australian Journal of Chemistry in 1958, and investigated their preparation and the characteristics of their chemical, electrical and lubrication properties, resulting in a process for producing titanium sulfide-based dry lubricants for high temperatures which was patented.
  Pioneering studies in microwave chemistry and gas plasma reactions led from this work into the electrical resistance and conduction of the sulphides, selenides, and tellurides, supported by his development of novel experimental apparatuses. Rather than use the glow discharge generated between two electrodes to produce a plasma reaction as Newnham and Watts had done, in the late 50s McTaggart drew on technology derived from the wartime electronics of radar capable of frequencies in the microwave region of the radio spectrum to create discharges without using electrodes. He induced the plasma with these charges into the gas through coils wound around the reaction vessel, thus avoiding contamination by metal from electrodes. In his monograph, McTaggart sums up the achievement: "Instead of an arc between electrodes, a radio-frequency field may be used to maintain the plasma."
  This approach, using high frequency discharges led to the discovery of new chemical reactions in low pressure plasmas, verified by a mass spectrometer built in the Division to identify the active species involved in the reactions. Research continued along two main avenues; low pressure, athermal plasmas, with high electron energies producing neutral atoms, ions, etc., at ambient or low temperature, with applications in the areas of pure research, chemical analysis, surface preparation, and thin film production; and atmospheric or high pressure plasmas, previously achieved with electrodes producing a plasma jet or torch, and used in parallel to McTaggart's microwave technique, for the production of high temperature, which best suited the interests of the Division in minerals.